Banelco now charging 11 pesos - Any experience with HSBC?

[thomashobbs]

It looks like as of today Banelco is charging 11.50 pesos per withdrawal, copying Link, which put in place this charge a couple of weeks ago. I'm not surprised altho this still sucks. On the plus side it now looks like the withdrawl limit has been raised to 600 pesos from 300.

I was wondering, are there any Americans on this forum with accounts at HSBC in the US? Are you able to use the branches here to make large withdrawals without incurring transaction fees?

Thanks!
Thomas

 

[Neil]

Open up an account at Banco Piano w/ passport, they will allow you to transfer up to $5K Usd per month into the account w/out any questions. HOWEVER they charge about 2% for transaction...Than you can move money to a local bank saving acct. and use a local debit card.

 

[Napoleon]

I was wondering, are there any Americans on this forum with accounts at HSBC in the US? Are you able to use the branches here to make large withdrawals without incurring transaction fees?

I don't have an HSBC account, but rather a Citibank account that falls into your question.

BEFORE:

I could take out any amount up to ~1,000 (or maybe more) at a time and there was no transaction fee, but there was/is a conversion fee of 3%. That's pretty steep, but I can take out AR$40 at a time a bunch of times and not have to deal with AR$100 bills that are difficult/risky to break.

NOW:

I don't know. I guess that I'll have to read the screen the next time I go to a Citibank.


Also, I think that there are more HSBC locations than Citibank locations in BsAs, but you just learn where your locations are and you go from there.

-N

 

[thomashobbs]

There's gotta be a way to turn dollars into pesos without paying 300 basis points. This isn't alchemy.

I better start making friends with arbolitos.

FYI, I use a checking account with First Republic. They don't charge any currency conversion fee above the 1% charged by Visa, which is unavoidable. They're a great bank and I'd recommend the account. The only drawback is a $2500 minimum balance. That most large US banks charge 2-3% on FX is outrageous but what are you going do to?

 

[nikad]

I confirm, we went to 3 different banks where we usually withdraw money from and all the atms said they would charge the 11 peso fee I am amazed nobody tries to do anything about this, especially permanent residents living in Argentina: this is discriminatory, we could file a complaint at INADI (?)

 

[vr236]

I called Banelco yesterday and they said the charge is new, that all atm companies in the world charge fees. However, they also said new max is 1000 which did not work for me either.

 

[nikad]

I say we should file a complaint at consumer´s defense

 

[citygirl]

Yes, I am so bitter b/c my landlord won't allow me to pay her into her US account but she only wants dollars. So I get hit with a 3% fee to take pesos out here (from my dollar account in the US) and then get hit again to change it back into dollars.

I haven't checked yet if Citi will charge me the 11 peso fee as well.

Not a happy girl.

Is 1000 the limit at all banks? I will have to check at Citi, they had lowered it but no one there could confirm if it was a permanent thing or not (used to be 3000 pesos per day for a Citi account holder).

 

[nikad]

I just see more and more banks are charging this fees, I really think we should do something about it: it is against consumer´s defense laws and discriminatory in the case of perm residents ( Unconstitutional )

 

[RobW]

How do you file a complaint? I am not happy!

And can I open a bank account here without a DNI with someone other than Banco Piano? I'm angling towards a more common bank with a debit card option.